Key retaining member



1935- w. R. BUXTON KEY RETAINING MEMBER Filed July 25, 1934 ATTORNEYS INVENTOR W4 RIVER R .BuxTo/v BY Patented Oct. 22, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2 Claims. (CI. 59-98) This invention relates to an improved key retaining member of the general class disclosed in my copending application Serial No. 638,715, filed October 20, 1932, issued as U. S. Letters Patent No. 1,968,989, on August 7, 1934. The present application is a continuation in part of the aforesaid application.

This invention has for an object the provision on the flat sides of the hemi-spherical head portions of the key retaining member of interengaging parts which will prevent relative movement of the engaged flat sides in the plane of their engagement.

The feature referred to is disclosed as a modification but not claimed in the aforesaid application. It has proved to be very important, where the key retaining member is used in a key case and overcomes a certain difiiculty which sometimes proved very troublesome. In turning a key,

a strain is placed upon the sides of the loop tending to shift the hemi-spherical head portions out of alinement and, under certain conditions, a part of one head which projects beyond the other may catch on some part of the slotted cylindrical sup- 5 porting member in which these heads are turn-.

ably received. Continued turning of the loop,

with one head portion held stationary, will move the other until the two head portions are enough out of alinement to enablethem to slip through the slot in the supporting member. The loop may be broken in this way or it may drop out and be lost with the keys which it carries. The improvement, referred to, notwithstanding that it is not a wide departure from the former structure, 5 nevertheless constitutes an important advance in the art in that it is the key to the successful use of a split-head type of key retaining member in a key case.

The invention will be disclosed with reference to o the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figs. 1 and 2 are front elevational views showing in enlarged form a key retaining member embodying the invention;

Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6 are sectional views thereof taken on the lines 3-3, 4-4, 55 and 6 6, re-

spectively of Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is a front elevational view of an open key case containing a plurality of the key retainingmembers; and 0 Fig. 8 is a. fragmentary cross sectional view thereof.

The key retaining member is constructed in the same general manner as disclosed in the above identified application except that it is made up u from wire of round cross section (Fig. 6) and embodies the aforesaid feature of improvement. It is made of a piece of spring metal in the form of a stirrup shaped loop having a bottom curve I0, long and substantially straight sides I I, a short neck portion I2, where the sides becomes substan- 6 tiallyparallel, and a ball head made up of mating and substantially hemi-spherical sections I3. The loop is so made that the spring pressure normally holds the two halves l3 tightly together so as to give the effect of an integral ball-shaped 1d head.

The inner or circular faces of the head sections 13 are flat surfaces except that there is provided on one a male part I I of suitable shape, such as the hemi-spherical projection shown in Fig. 4, and 15 on the other a female part l5 of complementary shape, such as the hemi-spherical recess shown.

These partsld andilti interfit as shown and prevent the parts, while held together by the spring pressure, from being shifted, the one relatively to 20 the other in the plane of their meeting surfaces. These surfaces may, as shown, be prolonged below the head by flattening the inner faces of the sides of the loop in the neck portion l2 of the loop, as shown in'Fig. 5. w as The loop is shown in enlarged form in Figs. 1 to 6 for clearness of illustration. It is shown of actual size in Fig. 7. r Y

The loops areused in a key case of the type disclosed nn. S. Letters Patent No. 1,908,816, 80 granted May 16, 1933 on an invention of Carleton H. Howe, 'to which' reference is made for a full disclosure of 'thekey jcase structure. For the present purposes,it' will 'suflice to state that the leather folder 16 of the key case has fixed thereto :5 a hollow cylindrical support H, from which the key retaining 1 members are supported. This member is provided with narrow, transversely disposed slots [8, one for each key retaining member and each slot is closed at its ends, the upper 40 end having an enlargement l9 through which the head of the key retaining member may be passed into the cylinder I1. The slot I8 is of a size to 'freely receive neck 1 I2. A plate 20 is mounted to slide longitudinally in the member l1 and can be moved by a flngenpiece 2|. 7 This plate 2|, as more particularly disclosedin the aforesaid Howe patent, covers theenlargenients I! when in the position shown, to apex-tent such as to prevent removal of the heads l3 from the cylinder "but, I. when moved to the left by" the finger pieceflfg-uncovers these enlargements and enables the heads to be lifted therethrough. -7 Practical use of the key case has proved that trouble often occurs with damage and II loss when key holders of the split-head type are used without the improvement of this invention. There are perhaps two reasons why the interfltting parts are necessary on the mating faces of the substantially hemi-spherical end portions ll of the key holding loop. The first is that these parts I! may become slightly displaced in the plane of their engagement so that one projects slightly beyond the other. This may occur after the key case has been in use for some time due to repeated strains on the sides of the loop in directions at right angles to that in which the spring pressure acts. or it may occur from warping of the wire during the heat treatment of the tempered spring loops. In either case, the result will be the formation of two crescent shaped cutting edges which unfortunately are altogether too effective as cutters. In time, as the key holders are turned, and particularly if in turning they are caused to bear against one edge of the slot, these cutting edges will cut the softer metal of the support and eventually wear it away to such an extent that the key retaining members will escape. The other reason is that it sometimes happens that in turning the key retaining member, as above described, a project ing part of one head section It catches on the wall of the slot and the other is moved completely out of matching relation with it. When the heads I! are thus moved out of matching relation, the spring pressure forces one flat face beyond the other and holds them in this undesirable oilset relation. The two heads, when thus offset, can pass through slot l8 and the key retaining member drops out of place. These very real difliculties would render impractical, or at least commercially undesirable if not unsuccessful, the use 01' key retaining members of thesplit head type but for the provisions of this invention. These provisions are therefore the key to success,-they render practical and commercially satisfactory a key case having removable key retaining members of the split head type.

What I claim is:

l. A key retaining member, comprising, a stirrup-shaped loop of stiif spring wire having its sides brought together to form a neck portion and a I -shaped head portion at the upper end, said wir having each end upset into substantially h -spherica1 form with the flat faces of said h '-spherical ends matching to form said head portion and. held together by suilicient spring pressure applied by the sides of the loop to put the head portion in condition to operate as the ball element of a ball and socket joint, the mating faces of said hemispherical ends having interiltting male and female parts for maintainin ing them while held together by said spring pressure in matching relation and preventing each from being laterally oflset from the other in a direction at right angles to that in which said spring presure acts and at right angles to a plane in which both sides oi the loop are included.

2. In a key case of the type having a hollow cylindrical support, near its upper edge, said support having a transverse slot provided at one point thereon with an enlargement, and a key retaining member comprising a stirrup shaped loop having its sides brought together to form a neck portion and above the neck portion a substantially ball-shaped head, said head being mounted within said support with its neck portion passing out through said slot and the head portion being removable from the support or insertable therein through saidenlargement, said loop comprising a single piece of stiff spring wire having each end upset into substantially hemispherical form with-the flat sides of each hemispherical end matching one another to form-said ball shaped head and held together under sumcient spring pressure from the sides of the loop to put the head portion in condition to operate as a ball element within said hollow cylindrical support, the mating faces of said hemi-spherical ends having interiitting parts for maintaining them, while held together by said spring pressure, 0 against relative displacement in the plane of said matched faces and preventing the one from being oflset laterally from the other into position to act as cutters on the sides of said slot and its enlargement.

WARNER R. BUXTON. 

